Ethics is the study of moral values and their role in society. Ethicists ask what has value, why, and what the practical implications are of that valuing. Within religious studies, the subfield of ethics includes both theoretical reflections and practical or applied discussions. Scholars of religious ethics draw on theology, textual studies, philosophy, the social sciences, and other fields. Some work within one tradition, while others compare across traditions. Examples of research in ethics might include analyses of a particular thinker or text, reflections on a significant theme, or ethnographic or historical studies of the ways that a particular group interprets an ethical issue.
In our department, the specialization on ethics focuses on the ways that religious traditions and religious practitioners/believers assign moral value to different qualities or things, the ways they use scriptures and other religious texts as a source for ethical discourse, and the ways that values are discussed and contested in concrete situations. Areas of faculty interest and expertise in ethics include bioethics, environmental ethics, everyday ethics, social ethics; theoretical approaches including virtue ethics and feminist ethics; and ethical thinking within specific traditions.
Departmental faculty working on ethics collaborate closely with colleagues and students in other units at the university, including the Department of Philosophy, Ethics in the Public Sphere, the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Center for Humanities and the Public Sphere, the CAIRES Center, and the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies.
Faculty
Anna Peterson
Yaniv Feller
Terje Østebø
Ali Altaf Mian